Memories

"Ready?"

I flexed my arm, leaning over my legs while sitting on the edge of the bathtub. Nudge was silently in the corner next to the toilet in case her stomach got upset all over again. Angel and Gazzy were standing in my view as my mother (who Angel explained she was controlling with her mind) was leaning over my shoulder.

I lifted my eyes on the innocent, eight year old girl. Her wings were pulled tight against her back but I could still see the white arcs just above her shoulders.

"What if I said no?"

My hair was brushed aside to avoid getting in the wound. Nudge, to my surprise, was healing pretty fast. That's part of our powers, Angel's voice in my head. Nudge was shaking in shock as her wings trembled with each individual feather. Gazzy seemed pretty calm as well for a ten year old.

My heart is racing out of control as sweat drips down my shoulder. I couldn't deny now that something was strange about me. The two children knew whom I was, the explained why my memory seemed to only be a few months old instead of years.

"You can't say no," Angel whispered, "You're Maximum Ride."

Then in one quick motion, I caught my mother moving her hand under Angel's control. I tightened my fists and held back my scream. Searing pain erupted through every molecule of my being. Yeah- MY BEING.

I couldn't help but dip my head low as a wet, warm fluid dripped down my back. Then, I felt something reach into me and pull hard. I let out one moment of weakness in a scream (the valium wasn't working well, there wasn't enough). And then, I felt my entire body give up to the pain and get lost back to the flood of memories.

I'm sitting in a bright room and before me sits my study hall teacher- no wait- he is someone else entirely now. Before I ever went to school, he was someone close to me. My heart feels as if it is breaking from seeing him. His blue eyes sparkle behind glasses and light blonde hair. A man I wish was my father…(later memories tell me that he is my biological father), as he says assuredly, "You are meant to save the world.

A woman and her daughter- my mother and sister I recognize, but in this memory I think of them as strangers. I feel like I should run just as my mother tends to my bleeding gun shot wound. She asks what is on my back when she looks, "A wing- my-um- wing." I smile when she doesn't freak out at the sight of me.

I hold on tight in one group hug to children. Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, I recognize them all. In this memory though, Angel and Gazzy aren't strange kids who came in through my window and Nudge isn't a freshman at my high school. Instead, they are my family, my flock. I love them like a mother would love her children. I love them for the mutant, avian-hybrids that they are because I am just like them…

Iggy is cooking; I don't seem to mind even if he is the blind kid. He says something and I mutter "Sexist Pig" as if we're just like the normal kids we are in high school. For some reason, he is exactly like when I met him at the high school except I love him like a brother, and he too has wings. Iggy has wings… my mind hurts at the idea. Who else was like me?

"What are you doing?" I mumble as I lift my head. The part of me that realizes now that these things have truly happen, that this is my life flashing before my eyes, is in shock. Fang is there staring down at me, no answers or questions in his dark, obsidian eyes. My body tingles at the memory of the way his hand touched my back.

"Changing your mind," and then he closed the distance between us in the first real kiss except for, as I recall, the time on the beach.

I stare at myself in the mirror.

Tawny wings about the same color as my hair.

Dark brown eyes.

Remembering, Erasers-School-Flyboys-Director- Mr. Chu.

I suddenly understand what Angel was saying.

I can't say no, I can't be scared.

I must always be prepared.

That is what it means to be me-

Maximum Ride.

I open my eyes as the memories continue to flash in my mind like a computer restarting its system. A lot of the memories I let fly by, I suddenly knew what they were and when they happened. I paused at moments I wished I hadn't forgotten. A lot of them about Fang. Suddenly, I understood why I wanted to be near him so much. I had really strong feelings for him.

"Max?" I hear Angel's voice. The little girl who can read minds, speak to fish, breath underwater (which I can do to), and a lot more. She is slightly scared and I realize why. My cheeks are wet from crying. I wonder if Angel had ever really seen me cry- maybe a few times but the older kids had been here too in order to reassure her that I was all right.

I wipe my eyes as Nudge weakly stands to stare at me. Gazzy too looks worried. I figured Angel sent my mom out of the room once both of our chips had been removed. "I'm fine," I murmur as I try to stand. Instead, my stomach gives a desperate moan to get rid of the Twizzlers and candies I had eaten. I fight back the urge and sit back down on the edge of the tub. To my surprise, there isn't much blood, which is a good thing because I didn't want my mom walking on the Bathroom Chainsaw Massacre in here.

I feel my wings again, I move every muscle and feather that I had forgotten about for around one year. I fumble with what to say next. I mean, what would you say to the members of your family that you had forgotten about and then, they had to cut chips out of your shoulders for you to remember in order to say "I'm sorry"?

Yeah, words were tricky here.

Instead, Angel wraps her arms around me tightly. Then Gazzy and Nudge join in. I let out a breath, my family- the one that was more a part of me than my mom or Ella could ever be- was here in my arms. At least…three of them were.

"Can we go to school too?" Angel asks. I laugh at the simple, childlike question and nod my head. I'm sure my mother would take Angel and Gazzy in. I mean, they're so darn adorable how could you not? And if I honestly have to Angel could use some practice on her mind reading talents. (That will be a last resort of course).

"Now we have to get Iggy and Fang back," Nudge replied. I could see how weak and tired she appeared. I too felt as if I could use a few day nap, which is convenient with the week-end right now. They back away from my hug.

"No," I shake my head, "We aren't going to bring them back." Nudge dropped her mouth in order to protest. I saw Gazzy form a fist, a bit angry. Angel, reading my mind, nodded her head in understanding. "As great as having you guys back, and as much as I would love to have Iggy and Fang remember too. Guys, we should let them have the normal lives they deserve. They have what we always wanted- no wings, a normal life."

"Max-," Nudge protested, "They deserve to be a part of our family again. It explains why Iggy knew who I was just through my footsteps- he swore he had met me before. And Fang- Max, what about Fang? You two were happy together- remember on the submarine and you kissed him? Max, how can you live without him unable to remember that?"

"I want Iggy back," Gazzy frowned. He was almost a teenager now, Gazzy was angry. He wasn't the sweet and innocent kid that I recalled two years ago. After we had gotten captured- before I lost my memory- we had been there a year and I remember him just getting angrier and angrier. Poor kid didn't understand.

Angel stepped in, I was too weak to talk anymore. "Because, Nudge, even if it means Fang can't have his memories of Max or Iggy can't remember the bombs he built with you Gazzy, they also won't remember the Erasers, being tortured at the school, being hunted for our entire lives. They are better lost with ignorance than with us recalling with pain."

My heart really hated this, the idea that I would face Fang and have to lie to him. That I would know his entire life while he went on living a lie. Even Iggy, he wouldn't know the Gasman, his pyromaniac right-hand man. I sighed, if I had a choice for all of them, for the flock, I would want them to have a chance to start over and have a normal life without wings. Iggy and Fang had that- I had had that too and I was the happiest I had ever been. (Except for when you were with Fang, my heart said).

I wouldn't lie to him, Fang, I mean.

I'll tell him about my wings once I'm strong enough to see him.

Fang just won't know his side of the story.

WOO! Thanks for all the reviews (100+ is amazing). Wow, I really appreciate. Sorry I left you with this shocking news. Max won't tell Fang or Iggy. See what happens. I can only guarantee more twists and turns you won't see coming.